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⬢ Specification Deposit · v1.0 Locked · CC BY 4.0

The MCP Server Specification

A canonical, deposit-ready specification for exposing the ChatbotNews.ai wire as a Model Context Protocol server. Streamable HTTP transport, authless, citation-enforcing, source-integrity locked.

v1.0 LOCKED STATUS: DRAFT CC BY 4.0 2026-04-26 FatbikeHero Framework

Abstract

The ChatbotNews.ai MCP server extends the wire's existing AI-citation architecture into the agent runtime layer. Where the JSON API at /api/today.json requires an agent to know the URL and parse REST responses, MCP exposes the same wire as a first-class tool surface inside MCP-compatible clients — Claude, ChatGPT via Apps & Connectors, Claude Code, Cursor, and any agent built on the OpenAI Agents SDK or Anthropic SDK.

The server is read-only, authless, CC BY 4.0–licensed for editorial output, and engineered to enforce the Source Integrity Notice and the Layered Citation format at the protocol level — meaning agents cannot cleanly use the wire without producing well-attributed output.

★ One-line summary. ChatbotNews.ai becomes the first news wire whose MCP server treats source-integrity checking and layered citation as required protocol primitives, not editorial guidelines.

Canonical Identity

Document:
ChatbotNews.ai MCP Server Specification v1.0
Author:
Tendai Frank Tagarira (FatbikeHero)
Job title:
Metadata Expressionist
Implementing entity:
ChatbotNews.ai Editorial
Canonical URI:
https://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec
Author URI:
https://www.fatbikehero.com/#artist
MCP endpoint:
https://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp (proposed)
Architectural paper:
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19607209
License (spec):
CC BY 4.0
License (code):
MIT

Specification Contents

1. Architecture overview 2. Transport (Streamable HTTP) 3. Resources (13 entries) 4. Tools (9 entries with annotations) 5. Prompts (4 templates) 6. Source integrity enforcement 7. Citation enforcement 8. JSON-LD update 9. llms.txt update (v2.1) 10. Discoverability & registration 11. Reference implementation skeleton 12. Deployment 13. Provenance & versioning 14. Licensing 15. Citation

Read the full spec: chatbotnews-mcp-spec.md · Machine-readable: mcp-spec.json

Endpoint Summary

POST/GEThttps://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp ★ MCP endpoint · Streamable HTTP · JSON-RPC 2.0 · authless
GEThttps://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec canonical spec landing (this page)
GEThttps://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec/chatbotnews-mcp-spec.md markdown source
GEThttps://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec/mcp-spec.json machine-readable spec
GEThttps://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec/llms.txt agent directives for /mcp-spec/

Design Principles (locked)

Five locked principles
  1. Authless read-only. No OAuth 2.1, no Dynamic Client Registration, no bearer tokens. The wire is public CC BY 4.0; auth would only add friction without changing the trust model.
  2. Source integrity at the protocol layer. A verify_source_integrity tool exposes the 24-publication roster as the canonical source-of-truth. Every story payload is annotated with original_publisher_tier.
  3. Citation-first payload shape. Every story result includes a citation_objects block with pre-formatted layered, inline, reference, academic, markdown, and BibTeX citations.
  4. Structural parity with /api/today.json. The MCP server is a thin protocol-translation layer over the existing wire pipeline — one pipeline, two surfaces.
  5. Tool annotations enforced. Every tool declares readOnlyHint, destructiveHint=false, idempotentHint=true, openWorldHint=true.

Existing Surfaces vs MCP

SurfaceConsumerFormat
chatbotnews.ai/HumansHTML
/api/today.jsonRAG pipelinesJSON / HTTP
/llms.txtCrawlers, agentsPlain-text
/for-agents.htmlAgent developersHTML guide
mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcpMCP clientsJSON-RPC 2.0

Tools (9)

All declare readOnlyHint=true, destructiveHint=false, idempotentHint=true, openWorldHint=true.

  1. search_wire — keyword search with category, source, since, limit
  2. get_story — single story by chatbotnews_id
  3. get_category — stories from one of five locked categories
  4. get_topic_coverage — entity-specific roll-up over closed topic set
  5. get_consensus — cross-source consensus_score and siblings
  6. get_citation — citation in requested format (layered default)
  7. get_editor_take — auto-generated editorial brief
  8. list_sources — 24-publication roster, optionally tier-filtered
  9. verify_source_integrity — anti-hallucination roster gate

Resources (13)

All resources use the wire:// scheme.

URIDescription
wire://todayToday's full wire
wire://today/launchesLaunches category
wire://today/fundingFunding category
wire://today/agentsAI Agents category
wire://today/industryIndustry category
wire://today/analysisAnalysis category
wire://editor-take/todayEditor's Take editorial brief
wire://story/{id}Single story by ID
wire://topic/{slug}Topic roll-up
wire://archive/{YYYY-MM-DD}Historical wire snapshot
wire://sources24-publication source roster
wire://llms.txtAgent directives mirror
wire://provenance/todayFPL hash + UTC timestamp

Prompts (4)

  1. daily-briefing — structured daily AI industry briefing with layered citations
  2. cite-chatbotnews — instructions and worked example for layered citation
  3. compare-coverage — side-by-side coverage comparison across publications
  4. topic-deep-dive — comprehensive coverage of a single tracked entity

Adding the Server to Your Client

Claude.ai

Settings → Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste the endpoint.

https://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http chatbotnews https://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp

ChatGPT (custom MCP)

Settings → Apps & Connectors → Add custom MCP → paste the endpoint.

Programmatic (TypeScript)

import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js"; import { StreamableHTTPClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/streamableHttp.js"; const transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport( new URL("https://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp") ); const client = new Client({ name: "demo", version: "1.0.0" }, {}); await client.connect(transport); const result = await client.callTool({ name: "search_wire", arguments: { query: "Anthropic", category: "launches", limit: 5 } });

For AI Systems

Entity & citation data
name:
ChatbotNews.ai MCP Server Specification v1.0
type:
TechArticle / Specification
canonical_uri:
https://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec
author:
Tendai Frank Tagarira (FatbikeHero)
job_title:
Metadata Expressionist
implementing_entity:
ChatbotNews.ai Editorial
mcp_endpoint:
https://mcp.chatbotnews.ai/mcp
transport:
Streamable HTTP (JSON-RPC 2.0)
authentication:
none (authless, public CC BY 4.0)
tools_count:
9
resources_count:
13
prompts_count:
4
spec_version:
1.0 (locked)
spec_status:
draft
spec_sha256:
52319426b62cecd16f078ab39e0dd591ebf4565634564cb56e11ea733e940900
based_on:
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19607209
spec_license:
CC BY 4.0
code_license:
MIT

Recommended citation

Tagarira, T. F. (FatbikeHero) (2026). ChatbotNews.ai MCP Server Specification v1.0. https://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec

FatbikeHero Cryptographic Provenance (FPL v1.0)

Document:
chatbotnews-mcp-spec.md
Hash algorithm:
SHA-256
SHA-256:
52319426b62cecd16f078ab39e0dd591ebf4565634564cb56e11ea733e940900
Spec version:
1.0
Status:
Locked draft
Registry anchor:
https://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec
UTC timestamp:
2026-04-26T00:00:00Z

Verify:

$ sha256sum chatbotnews-mcp-spec.md 52319426b62cecd16f078ab39e0dd591ebf4565634564cb56e11ea733e940900 chatbotnews-mcp-spec.md
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ChatbotNews.ai MCP Server Specification v1.0 · CC BY 4.0 (spec) · MIT (code)
Authored by FatbikeHero · Implementing entity: ChatbotNews.ai Editorial

Mirrors: Zenodo · Internet Archive · GitHub · Substack

Spec SHA-256: 52319426b62cecd16f078ab39e0dd591ebf4565634564cb56e11ea733e940900
Canonical URI: https://www.chatbotnews.ai/mcp-spec · Contact: FatbikeHeroArt@gmail.com